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Since nobody else posted here I will add my 2 cents. I do not own one, but I rented one in England in June for two weeks, put about 500 miles on it. I would love to have one. Unbelievable torque, I had mine stuffed with the wife, two kids, so many bags you had to sit on the trunk to get it to close, and at 70 mph when you hit the pedal it would pin you in the seat. Mine had a MPH/Gal gauge on the dash that would go up and down as you drove. At 70 mph on the motorway it stayed about 45-50 miles per gallon. Cannot help with the maintenance issues, but it was a blast to drive. Ours was built to be a rental, auto, cloth seats, cheap dash inserts, but I would own one.

Mine is an '11. 11k miles so far in 9 months. The car is a blast to drive around town with 425 lb ft of torque on tap between 1700 - 2300 rpm. Real world performance has shown to be better then most of the car tests. 0-60 arriving in 5.2 seconds and a quarter mile in the 13's with a 2nd gear start. Add the JBD tune and hp can be increased to 300 and torque to 500 ft lbs and the car will run 4.5 seconds to 60 and a 12.9 quarter at 108 mph. I am running this tune and it really transforms the car.

As for fuel economy I average between 21 mpg and 23 mpg city and approx 34 highway and I preface by saying that I am VERY heavy on the accelerator around town and on the highway. When driving the car more conservatively I can get 26 around town and on a recent road trip coming back from state college PA I had the cruise set at 75 and I avg 38.7 mpg's. Many more conservative drivers/owners report seeing low 40's highway and mid/high twenties city. Good quality fuel with a high cetane content helps a lot.

As for maintenance the only problem that has plagued my car as well as other d's is the AC belt squeal. I had all of the tentioners, pullies, and belts replaced and the problem came back, but this was before BMW came out with a fix a couple of months ago. The AC belt is now being replaced with an aftermarket belt and seems to have solved the problem. You can look for my post on bimmerfest under the diesel section (cssnms). When my car had 7k mi I got a service engine light due to crystallization around the metering valve which was cleaned under warranty. Some other owners have reported having similar problems. I've only heard of 1 or 2 instances of issues with the DPF system in higher mileage d's.

I would recommend the 2010 over the 2009 as BMW changed the transmission in 2010 to a heavier duty tranny, although I haven’t heard of any problems with the 2009 tranny's, but a tranny that can take more torque/hp's can't be a bad thing esp if you plan to tune it. Otherwise a great car.

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"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." – Thomas Jefferson

That's a nice and rare color. If you have not taken it for a spin yet, I think you will be pleased. I remember the first time my wife and I got in the car at the dealer to take it for a test drive, we started it up and had we not known it was a diesel we would have never guessed. When we left the dealer lot, I remember pulling out and applying as much throttle as I would in our gaser and the rear tires broke loose. Fun car.

I see the perfomance numbers on this car and wonder why don't we see diesels in more automobiles??
Seems like a no-brainer to me...better performance and fuel efficiency...as well as longevity. Maybe the Europeans know better than us on this particular subject after all.